Since Lane Cove Council rangers have been required to issue physical paper tickets, parking fines revenue has dropped.

The Lane Cove Council Quarterly Budget Papers presented at the February 2026 Lane Cove Council meeting noted that “Due to the cessation of ticketless infringements to satisfy NSW Government requirements, parking fines will not achieve the budget forecast and may need further reduction ($400K)”

Lane Cove Parking Fine Revenue Trending Down

Each month, the council papers also include a graph showing the four-year trend in parking fines issued in Lane Cove Council.  The graph is below, and you will see that parking fine revenue is at its lowest level in four years.

Ticketless Parking Fines Background

Ticketless parking infringements in NSW, where councils issue parking fines electronically without leaving a notice on the vehicle, were introduced in 2020 under the former NSW Government.

Under this system, councils could send penalty notices by post or electronically days or even weeks after the offence occurred. This approach quickly led to massive growth in ticketless parking fines:

2022–23 Financial year:  NSW councils issued 551,441 ticketless parking fines.

2023–24 financial year: the number jumped by 49% to 822,310 ticketless parking fines.

The current NSW Government described the system as unfair and lacking transparency, because drivers often did not realise they’d been fined until long after the offence.

Reform and New Legislative Requirements

In November 2024, NSW Parliament passed reforms to end ticketless parking fines and restore on-the-spot notifications and stricter time limits for issuing parking penalty notices.

Councils were given time to prepare for the changes.

From 1 July 2025, councils were no longer permitted to issue ticketless parking fines for on-street parking; instead, they must attach a fine or notification to the vehicle or issue a notice within seven days of the offence.

Official NSW Government data released around the reforms shows a significant reduction in ticketless parking fines after the ban came into effect.

Local Council Data — Car Park Parking Penalty Notices

As part of the reform, councils are now required to publish on their website details of fines issued.

For the period 1 July 2025 – 30 September 2025 Lane Cove Council issued

2 353 parking fines

1345 parking fines where a notice was attached to a vehicle

466, where a parking fine was not attached to a vehicle

422 invalid parking fines

Why So Many Invalid Fine Notices?

The high number of invalid parking fines caught ITC’s attention.

We compared these figures with adjoining councils, and Lane Cove Council had the highest number of invalid tickets.

We asked Lane Cove Council for a reason for this high number, and it relates to the issuing of fines for Lane Cove Council car parking stations.  This is interesting as the reforms were aimed at off-street parking offences and not car parking stations.

Lan Cove Council provided the following response to In the Cove:

“On 1 July 2025, a legislative amendment in NSW introduced a requirement that parking penalty notices must be issued within seven (7) days of the offence occurring.

Prior to this change, Council’s process for the relevant car parks operated as follows:

• A vehicle would enter the car park on Day 1.
• The driver had up to three (3) days to make payment.
• If payment was not received, the matter progressed to enforcement on Day 5.
• Penalty notices were then referred to Revenue NSW for print and post processing.

Under the new legislative timeframe, the existing process no longer allowed sufficient time for referral and processing through Revenue NSW, as penalties now had to be issued within seven days of the offence. Revenue NSW was unable to complete Print-and-post processing within the remaining two-day window, and as a result, 442 penalty notices were cancelled as they did not meet the revised statutory timeframe.

Following consultation with Revenue NSW, Council removed all car park-related fines from the Print-and-Post system. These matters are now processed in-house by Council Rangers to ensure compliance with the legislative timeframe.

Importantly, the timeframe for the public has not changed. Where payment has not been received, fines continue to be issued on Day 5, which remains within the seven-day statutory requirement. Any fines that cannot be processed within this window are not issued.”

It is always a good idea to check the date the fine was issued and when you received it, particularly if parking in a Lane Cove Council Car Park.

So even though the main intent of the legislative reform was to stop ticketless parking, the legislation has impacted the council’s car parking stations.  That is why our cover photo is of the Lane Cove Market Square carpark.

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